1.28-2.1

Brace yourself because this is going to be a long one!

Thursday: Had class all day, don't remember much about this day. All I remember is being so excited for my weekend of traveling. Louis got picked up to go off for his version of a weekend vacation (I really do think he had a good time, he has been sleeping ever since he was dropped off today). That night, I went and had a fun dinner with my friend Briehn who is studying with Mizzou in Pamplona, Spain. I got to meet some fun new

girls who go to Mizzou as well. We went to dinner at Attic, a restaurant right off Las Ramblas with a really cool terrace view of the street. Had this yummy seafood ravioli and apple tartini for dessert. It was so great to see a familiar face and catch up with some midwest folk! After that, I came back and packed up for my trip. It wasn't a very restful night of sleeping because we had to wake up early and catch our plane to Milan.

(The restaurant Bri, her friends and I ate at)

Friday: We arrived in Milan around 12ish. I am becoming a phenomenal flier, well phenomenal is probably a huge overstatement, but comparing myself to last year at this time, 10000000X better. Anyway, we couldn't check into the hostel right away, so we just decided to explore the city. Oddly enough, we were all so hungry and enjoyed a lunch at a Japanese restaurant around the corner from the train station. I had sushi and miso soup for my first meal in Milan....strange? Yep. Then Beth and I went from hotel to hotel trying to get directions to the Duomo. We finally got there and the plaza was breathtaking. The Duo

mo is the largest gothic cathedral in the world. We went inside and it was gorgeous. My favorite part was when people would light the candles and pray. It was so peaceful and beautiful. I love seeing faith in action like that.

(woman praying in Duomo, Milan 2010)

After that, we decided we wanted to walk up to the roof of the Duomo, which was absolutely worth the money! We climbed stairs for what seemed like forever, and had the day been a teensy bit clearer, it would've been amazing, but it still was! The architecture was amazing and so detailed. You could see the Plaza and all the people around.

After we were on the roof for awhile, we went to venture off and find our hostel. Well jokes on us, after walking for a long time, the hostel turned us away to a different one...Sweet Hostel, which was not sweet at all. We had to find our way to the Sweet Hostel and then we were not happy when we got there. It was so gross, but when in Milan, do as the Milanese?? Anyway, we were all just so exhausted but didn't want to walk anymore. We ended up going across the street to this really great pizza place. The 5 of us each had an entire pizza, and yes, I ate just as much as the boys, and faster than they did. Michael is the only one who ate faster than me. Maybe not something to brag about. But the pizza was great! Buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes. Went back to the hostel and it was SNOWING! It was gorgeous. I tried to shower...gross. But I did. I'm growing up! Went to bed because we had a 7 am train ride to Venice in the morning.

Saturday: met the other girls at the train station and got on. We were running a little bit late as we had no idea where we were going, but made it on time. Sad news...no snack cart, so we were stuck with no food or water until like 12 in venice. The train was pretty fun though. Despite the cramped leg room (for Peter not for me), it was gorgeous. All the snow on the countryside took my breath away. It actually went fairly fast for a 3 hour train ride.

Once we got to Venice, I gasped it was so gorgeous. It was even prettier than I thought it could be. We got on a water taxi (yes a water taxi because there are NO cars in venice), and it took us through the canal to our hotel. It was like 35 minutes, but it was great to see the whole city despite it being so chilly. We dropped our things off at the hotel and went off to see the city. We walked to San Marco Piazza where St. Mark's Basilica, the Bell Tower and Doge's Palace are. They were setting up for Carnaval there...2 weeks early. They take it pretty seriously. We walked through the basilica, which although it wasn't as big as Duomo, was still gorgeous. Very ornate with gold ceilings. Then we walked around to Rialto Market. Most of the day was spent walking around. We were starving, so we stopped in this resaturant and had a delicious lunch. We had coffee and water and 5 different types of pasta, I had pesto. It was delicious. And we hadn't eaten all day. More and more walking until the rest of the group got to Venice from their later train time. After that, the whole group just walked around and met up with some other people they knew from Wisconsin. Bought some postcards, did some window shopping, etc.

Our hostel in Venice was a million times better than our hostel in Milan! It was perfect, and as a wonderful surprise, Peter's family friend, Jill who used to live in Venice, sent us a bottle of delicious champagne to our room! It was so sweet. We got ready for dinner and drank the champagne. Jill's ex-boyfriend owns a cafeteria/bar right in town, so we went there before dinner to have the famous "Venetian Spritz." You can get it bitter or sweet, so I got sweet of course. It was delicious, but I'm such a wine gal now. Then we went to another pizza place for dinner, per Jill's recommendation. Peter and I ended up splitting a pizza, and it was a good dinner. After that, we went towards Rialto and found a fun little bar to hang at. We had a really good time, but it was funny because they were playing all American music, and ALL the italians knew the words.

(PDA couple on top of the Duomo, Milan 2010)

Sunday: woke up and started walking around the city. A lot of attractions were closed in the mornings because of church services. We just walked around and took some pictures. We decided to go into Doge's Palace which was amazing. I learned so much, and even though we couldn't take pictures, I still remember it all. If you ever go to Venice, I highly recommend paying for that! After that, we went to the Bell Tower in the Piazza and went to the top, another view that was worth the money. You could see the mountains and the entire city and the canals from the top. It was like being in heaven, and it 100% took my breath away!! We had some hot chocolate, cookies, gelato, a cube of chocolate (yes I bought one) and coffee around the plaza. We were tired and cold! Oh, and I almost forgot---a bird pooped on my new pretty red coat. It was absolutely disgusting, but when my mom and I watched "Under the Tuscan Sun," birds pooping on you were a sign of good luck in Italy so yipee! After we had seen most of the tourist attractions but were too tired to walk, we got lazy. Real lazy. We went to BURGER KING and hung out there. And yes, I caved in and finally had some real American fast food, but it was so worth it. Then we decided to go back to Rialto market which was wonderful because I found a Lush store and decided to get some solid shampoo...it's amazing and smells like cinnamon, I've had it before and left it in STL. It will be perfect for traveling! And Peter got an awesome leather-bound journal. Everywhere in Venice was out of stamps. I'm not even kidding. So I didn't even get to send the postcards from Venice...note to self, get stamps ASAP! Then we went to the airport and had a long night. We didn't get back to the apartment until 3 am this morning and had class all day. Today I have been catching up on work. I move into my apartment tomorrow! Yayyyyyy. I will finally have an actual bed to lay in at night!

We are staying in Barcelona this weekend, with a possibility of a day trip to go skiing on Friday!! I would really love that. A day of skiing I can do...a week...absolutely not! Kiley is coming to Barcelona from Madrid this weekend and I am SOOOOOO excited to see her! There is so much I still need to see in Barcelona, so I am pumped to see it all with her and her friends. I can hardly wait! The school work is starting to pile up, but I'm trying my best to stay afloat.

(I wanna go back! Venice, 2010)

Also, happy birthday to Baba! I was able to talk to her for a few minutes tonight, and it made me so happy.

Wish me luck on the move tomorrow.

Besos!